The British Medical Research Council’s medical surveys of the South Wales collieries represent a key conflict between standardization and individuals’ personal experience of health. In a paper recently published in The British Journal for the History of Science , Life … Read more…
A ‘songline’ is a song used within Australian Aboriginal culture as a way to navigate across the land… Health research is often bounded by disciplinary expertise. In a paper recently published in the journal Medical Humanities, members of the Life … Read more…
What’s in a name? Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR), an exercise and education programme, is currently the most effective non-pharmaceutical therapy for people with chronic breathlessness. However, uptake of PR is often poor – does it have an ‘image problem’? This article … Read more…
How do we understand the relationship between tobacco and humans in light of the fact that tobacco has become one of the most widely used and traded commodities on the planet? In Anthropology of Tobacco, Life of Breath researcher Andrew … Read more…
What defines “coal identity politics” and what role might they have had in the election of Donald Trump? In this article, Arthur Rose examines the works of bell hooks, Elmore Leonard, and the television series Justified—based on Leonard’s fiction— to … Read more…
Can using letters help create a personal narrative and public story, generating new ways of relating to breathlessness? A new paper by Life of Breath researcher Alice Malpass and collaborator Elspeth Penny explores the value of using theories of story … Read more…
For World COPD Day 2018 and the publication of Life of Breath’s new Policy Report, consultant respiratory physician and honorary senior lecturer at the the Academic Respiratory Unit (University of Bristol) Dr James Dodd writes… What is COPD? Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary … Read more…
At a key moment in Hamlet’s duel with Laertes, Gertrude cries out that Hamlet ‘is fat and scant of breath’ (5.2.287). Was Hamlet fat, we may ask, as we recall the more memorable Hamlets, cinematic and dramatic? It depends, some … Read more…
Life of Breath collaborator Dr. Megan Wainwright introduces her new paper “Exploring ambivalent human-oxygen technology-world relations through the lens of Postphenomenlogy” published in the Journal of Material Culture as part of a special issue on Ambivalent Objects in Global Health (Eds. … Read more…
A new book on phenomenology and illness entitled Existential Medicine: Essays on Health and Illness is now out, with a chapter by Life of Breath Principle Investigator Havi Carel and PhD student Tina Williams. The book’s editor, Professor Kevin Aho, is the author of Existentialism: An Introduction, Heidegger’s … Read more…
Tina Williams and Havi Carel have contributed a chapter on breathlessness to this new essay collection which explores the experience of illness, ‘what it means’ and ‘what it feels like’ to be ill. Read more about this volume on our blog … Read more…
In this book chapter in the volume Atmospheres of Breathing, Prof Carel considers breathlessness from a phenomenological perspective, reframing it as an existential, social, personal, cultural and psychological phenomenon, rather than a medical symptom. (Read more about the book on … Read more…
The Life of Breath team, like our colleagues at Breathe Oxford, recently responded to the proposal that defining chronic breathlessness as a syndrome might raise awareness of its impact on people’s lives. We stress that more consultation with ‘experts-by-experience’ (patients who experience … Read more…
While in Delhi for a recent UN convention on tobacco control, anthropologist Andrew Russell reports on widespread ‘astroturfing’ – large multinationals subsidising apparently independent interest groups to secretly (or not so secretly) push corporate interests. Interference, intimidation, emotional blackmail and … Read more…
Recently it was proposed that defining chronic breathlessness as a syndrome might raise awareness of its impact on people’s lives . Our collaborators at Breath Oxford responded. Their research explores the neuroscience of breathlessness, particularly the networks that generate perceptions. They … Read more…
What do people with COPD think their lungs look like? Ideas about what is going on inside the body can influence how people present their symptoms and respond to medical treatment. In this study, anthropologist Megan Wainwright asked people with … Read more…
How do we accurately measure hearing loss? In a new paper in The British Journal for the History of Science, Life of Breath researcher Coreen McGuire (University of Bristol) and Jaipreet Virdi shed light on the career of Dr Phyllis Margaret Tookey Kerridge (1901–1940) – a pioneer … Read more…
Who makes comics about science, and why? Life of Breath Project Administrator Jordan Collver explores the intersection of science and art in comics with Emma Weitkamp in a new paper for The Journal of Science Communication: “Alter egos: an exploration of the perspectives … Read more…
Some may wonder why our project includes the consideration of medieval thoughts and practices relating to the breath. What can studying them possibly offer modern medicine? In a special edition of the journal postmedieval two of our project team, Prof Corinne … Read more…
Dr Megan Wainwright is an international collaborator on the Life of Breath project. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town (Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, School of Public Health and Family Medicine), and an … Read more…
Cynicism is often associated with indifference and fatalism – traits which are undoubtedly undesirable among healthcare professionals. However, in this article the authors argue that ‘healthy’ cynicism can be a valuable trait – it can form part of a protective response by physicians … Read more…
Throughout 2016 our collaborator Jayne Wilton created unique and beautiful breath-inspired artworks to grace the cover of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal. She used a variety of techniques including copper etching, photosensitive paper and glass blowing to capture both exhaled … Read more…
Life of Breath PI Havi Carel has contributed a chapter on phenomenology and hermeneutics to the Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Medicine (ed. Miriam Solomon, Jeremy Simon and Harold Kincaid).
Life of Breath PI Havi Carel explores epistemic injustice in psychiatry with Paul Crichton and Ian James Kidd in a new paper for the BJ Psych Bulletin.